Clinical positron emission tomography imaging.

Positron emission tomography (PET) is assuming increasing importance as an imaging modality in evaluation of neurologic, oncologic, and cardiac disease. Its unique ability to provide cross-sectional physiologic information makes it very useful in the evaluation of human disease in which structural anatomy remains unchanged but the metabolism or function of the tissue is affected by the disease process. We provide an overview of the present status of clinical PET in the United States.